Devotion
by Shinjite Florana
Summary: "I…I have to protect Eren." Jean shook her "There IS no Eren anymore, Mikasa. That THING is a titan, you can't save him." He was right; no boy resided within the monstrous avatar anymore. But she couldn't leave him, she just couldn't.


**If you're looking for closure in this story, keep looking. Xb This was supposed to be a oneshot, but it got a little lengthy so I split it into two. This isn't the first Shingeki no Kyojin fanfic I've written, but it will be the first I've posted. Hope you all like it!**

**I'm pretty sure this would have to be labeled under tragedy, and then maybe friiiendship? Eren X Mikasa romance if you _squint?_**

**Anywho, Spoilers later if you are unaware of the fact that evidence is pointing toward all titans having been humans once. The thought struck me, what if Eren was fully absorbed by his titan? What would Mikasa do with her devotion then?**

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Devotion

The color reminded her of bright cherries—the kind that they had picked together as children.

She could remember the sweet smell of her surrogate mother; her hair glazed win honey in the sunlight and tussled by soft winds. She could remember the feeling of Eren's weight on her shoulders, one hand fisted tightly in her hair for balance. Her extra height allowed him to reach deep into the tree's boughs. Eren's hands had been the same size as hers then, and he had greedily plucked the fruit from branches. The spoils ended up in his mouth as often as they did in the wicker basket. The overripe morsels would burst in his hand and on his tongue, spilling crimson in rivets down his chin and staining his fingertips as he hungrily sucked each digit. He'd smile down at her as the gore of his meal spilled down his face, and from his perch above her pluck a ruby-red prize and pop it into her mouth. She'd break the berry's skin with her teeth and let the ruptured taste flood her mouth.

It was the same. The same deep deep color that seeped from her wrist now. She brought the limb to her mouth, displeased when the taste wasn't the tart burst she remembered but warm and coppery, alkaline and unfamiliar. Her tongue pressed against the source a moment longer, easing the ache, before lowering it again. Her sleeve was already in ribbons and it was simple enough to tear another strand for a clean bandage. The wound was old now. At least Mikasa couldn't remember a time when she didn't have the angry cut running jaggedly around her thumb and across the edge of her wrist.

It hadn't been there when they were picking cherries, she vaguely thought.

The rosy color leaked easily through the new bandage. It was an old wound, though. She simply didn't have time to let it heal.

Her head perked as an incensed roar shook the air.

It looked like Mikasa would have to leave the relative safety of her tree. Eren had finished off his distractions and would be moving on soon. She stood with care, balancing herself against the trunk.

Eren had been eating cherries too, Mikasa thought as steam rose from his cherry covered lips, dissipating the color. This cherry would not stain. It presently covered his hands and mouth the same way it had in those memories, but soon the color would fizzle away and leave him clean. The burning color, deep deep cherry, would only be there a few minutes before its traces where gone.

The ground thundered with his steps as he moved away. He was treading parallel to the treeline, which Mikasa was grateful for. She stared down at her 3DMG. Carefully she made her stiff hands curl around the grips, threading her fingers through the trigger guards with tender purpose.

The cherry that seeped through the cloth tied about her hand was from an old wound, but she'd had no time to heal it. Instead she willed the tendons to draw, the muscle to contract, and the fingers to pull the triggers sending her whirring forward.

She fought her exhaustion to keep up with Eren. At the same time she had to be conservative, and more often than naught simply swung her way alongside him, preserving her gas.

Her fingers were stiff, her muscles petrifying beneath her bruised skin. Her wrist was probably infected. She would have to have Armin-

Mikasa crashed against the tree hard enough to shake every leaf. Birds took to the air, startled by the disruption. It was half a miracle that Mikasa caught herself on the branch instead of plummeting the endless distance to the ground. The air had been forced from her chest and she gasped, grappling desperately to the bough. Its support under her arms was the only thing keeping her aloft.

Never mind that. Never mind the wound, she was fine. Never mind Armin—not now, she couldn't now. The memory of cherry that did stain would make her head swim. Tears would make it hard to see, so never mind. Never mind all of it. All that mattered right now was Eren. She needed to protect Eren.

The ground shook, and the tree swayed. Mikasa's grip tightened. She turned her head toward the approaching noise.

This was bad. Eren had heard her. Her careless little incident had brought him straight to her and suddenly his aqua eyes burned through the trees. The light through the canapé dappled shadows against his skin as his massive form approached. His maw opened wide and leaked steam as a hand reached for her.

Move, Mikasa.

MOVE.

Fighting every instinct in her body, Mikasa let go of the branch. She freefell for a heart-stopping moment before roughly catching herself on the limb below.

Slivers of wood, leaves, and sap rained down on her as the place she just occupied a second before exploded. Eren's huge fist retracted from the spot. He let out a feral roar at his failure.

Mikasa whimpered as she landed roughly on her bad hand, reflexively releasing it. She was left dangling precariously by one arm. No no no, she had to move. She had to move NOW.

Mikasa shot a cable desperately out. It hit a mark. She had no choice now, she released. Another heartbeat later and the branch that had been her only support was ripped from the tree. There was a cacophonous crash as the lumber timbered to the ground, wretched up from the root. Mikasa paid it no mind. She had hooked too low and crossed her arms protectively in front of her face as she swung gracelessly onto the ground.

She would have rather hit the ground running, but she was winded and desperate. Still, she was up and moving before she could think.

She had to get up in the air. She did this with heavy _thunks_ from her attaching cables, expensing some of her precious gas to gain the height. The wind pushed past her face and suddenly she was back in the canapé, the leaves rustling around her head in wreaths.

She remembered the smell of the cherry grove. She and Eren had switched places back then. She remembered being on his shoulders next, head crowned by leaves and deep red baubles. The beauty was dizzying, like being in a Christmas tree.

Mikasa shook her head. Focus.

She had taken off against the edge of the forest and was forced to curve her trajectory suddenly when the trees disappeared in front of her, replaced instead by plains. She shot her cables wildly back. Swinging low and wide to turn back to the cover, a figure caught her eye. A lone titan in the ten or twelve meter class. It seemed to have seen her as well and got down on all fours to bound after her like a goat, its tongue pressed tightly between its teeth. A deviant then.

Mikasa adjusted herself to swing up and around a branch, pulling in to land heavily on the support. She could still hear Eren, furious somewhere behind her. Her weaving had put some distance between them but he would be upon her soon.

Titans meant death. They had made good on the promise countless, countless times, taking precious life after precious life from her. She still remembered the thick rain of cherry from the sky, the gore warm and unnatural precipitation as if fell around her, Eren's screams as he had watched the horror when she could not stand to look.

But this day, she pulsed with relief at the distraction's approach. Now this meant she might live. She had to live, to protect Eren.

The titan shifter in question was taking more time than Mikasa had accounted for in getting to her. Her brain foggily registered this as the deviant crashed into the base of her tree. It turned its undersized head up to her, its chin pressed tightly against the tree. Its tongue was still held between its teeth and its eyes were wide with intent. Mikasa steadied herself against the trunk. The edges of her vision seemed to blur. Was her vision tunneling? Where was Eren?

Sensation became a fuzzy affair. She might have heard bark chipping and tearing below her. Had she lost too much blood? Where was Eren?

A giant heat of skin closed around her, lifting her. Where was Eren?

She was brought toward the face of the twelve meter class now. When had that happened? Its Jaw ripped opened, its mouth gaping unnaturally wide.

Where was Eren? She needed to protect him. Where was Eren?

"_RWAAAAAH!"_

There he was.

A balled fist suddenly hit the deviant so hard the top half of its head went flying. The punch was so close Mikasa's hair whipped in the wind of it. The remaining body of the titan crashed to the ground. Mikasa, still in its grasp, fell to. The impact released her and she went sprawling away in an uncontrolled and disorienting tumble.

The familiar colossal howled again at its new enemy, Mikasa completely forgotten. His foot crashed dangerously close to her, making the ground jump with the impact and Mikasa rolled a bit further away, consciousness spinning.

It didn't take long for Eren to finish off the near defenseless titian flailing in the dirt, but still he continued stomping the dissolving body to mush, frescoing himself in brilliant splashes of cherry.

Mikasa forced herself to her hands and knees. Eren had stopped stomping, instead releasing his anger in vocal outrage toward the sky. Mikasa's vision was swimming. She tried to still the ground as it wrippled beneath her. She lazily eyed her left wrist. She needed to change the bandage again, the salty cherry dripping from the wound.

Mikasa was struck by a sudden wave of nausea. She fought it for only a moment before arching her back and releasing the contents of her near empty stomach.

The ground was shaking again. Mikasa turned her head, watching the muscled back of Eren as he walked away. Eren...Eren was leaving. Mikasa forced herself to stand.

She couldn't be separated from him, she had to protect him, Eren…

Mikasa shot cables and flung herself into the air, a feat a moment ago she felt would have been impossible for her.

Seconds felt like hours as she chased after him. The dappled pattern of light that once tattooed Eren's broad shoulders was gone now, replaced by a cherry-tinted twilight and chill wind. As the canapé thinned, Mikasa caught glimpses of the swirling clouds over head.

She jerked to a sudden stop at the edge of the forest. Eren was leaving the helpful cover; she couldn't use her 3DMG to keep with him anymore. Mikasa's heart fluttered in panic.

Eren, Eren,

She shot her cables, praying she wouldn't use up the rest of her gas as she propelled herself to the massive back retreating from her into the open plains. She landed just between his shoulder blades, held tight by the wires embedded in his flesh. The heat coming off of him nearly burned her with its intensity against her ill acquainted skin. Despite the heat she pressed herself to it, her heart a fast staccato beat as she waited, waited to see if he noticed, if he…

Her heart beat once, twice, five times. And then ten. Then twenty.

Mikasa sighed, pressing her face against the hot flesh beneath his neck. He hadn't noticed. Thank God, thank God…

She let herself rest there, plastered tightly to the smoldering heat of him. Her body was so cold. The pain of his warmth was also pleasure to her shivering frame. She had lost too much blood. Her hands pressed against him on either side, as if she was trying to embrace his gigantic frame. With slow deliberence she uncurled her fingers to press her palms against him.

"I'll protect you, Eren, don't worry," she murmured.

The jostling sway of Eren moving was a comfort to her, knowing that she couldn't be separated from him now.

There was a wetness coming from her left hand. Mikasa shifted her eyes to watch the staining cherry run down her arm. Oh right. The constant ache of the limb had become background to her actions, but she should take care of it now. Then she would rest. She would be safe here, for a while at least. After untying the red-soaked cloth she released it.

The cherry ribbon fluttered down from the height, a streamer in the wind. It caught itself in drafts and twirled and tumbled high into the sky, flitting in the purgatory between cloud and earth. Perhaps a lifetime passed as the sky bled deep crimson before dying to darkness, perhaps mere moments.

Light from the predawn haze began to saturate life back into the land. The ribbon dipped, the wind dying. It skidded low against the ground, endlessly tumbling stark against the desaturated world.

It caught itself against a warn leather boot. A calloused hand reached down to pick up the streamer. The hand brought the stained cloth level with spruce eyes. The figure's gaze shifted to the horizon the cloth had drifted down from.

Two other horses with hooded figures road up behind him.

"Did you find something?" one asked.

"Yeah." The spruce eyed figure handed over his own horse's reigns before tying the bloodied cloth around his wrist. All the time he kept his gaze on the horizon, toward his destination. He reached into a pouch at his waist, brandishing metal that glinted in the faint light of the peaking sun. He pointed the object toward the rising orb and pulled the trigger. A green flair shot into the air.

"We've found her."

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**Alright, hope that wasn't to boring of a setup. I think I'm safe saying it'll get better. Xb See you in the next part!**

**Please REVEIW!**

**~ShinjiteFlorana**


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